This course will explore the diversity of American women's experiences from the colonial era through the Civil War. We will pay particular attention to the roles women filled--as slaves, nuns, housewives, mothers, and workers, as well as depictions of women as witches, paragons of virtue, and urban consumers. In our reading of historiography and primary texts we will analyze the ways in which literacy and artistic culture as well as geopolitical events shaped women's lives. As we study works of history, we will also read modern works of feminist and race theory to further our understanding of connections between ideology and practice, between narrative and argument.

Class Format: seminar

Requirements/Evaluation: a research paper (20-25 pages), based on reading and analysis of a set of primary sources, a literature review, class participation, and an informal reading journal

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Prerequisites: none

Enrollment Preference: advanced History majors and to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies majors